January 2007 Archives

January 11, 2007

FindLaw Daily Opinion Summaries for New York Court of Appeals - 01/11/07

Somers v. Demco, No. 46 SSM 38 (N.Y. January 11, 2007)
Workers' Compensation Law section 15(8)(f), as interpreted by the Court of Appeals, provides that the statutory 104-week time limitation for filing a notice or claim of the right to reimbursement from the Special Disability Fund does not apply to a case that has been closed without a finding of permanent disability and then reopened, even when the closure occurs more than 104 weeks after the date of disability.
[To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com.]

January 13, 2007

FedCirc.us

FedCirc.us is a portal of patent caselaw information built on a foundation of timely, accurate and considerate reviews of appellate level court decisions. Content is organized to provide quick updates on the latest developments in the law and to facilitate focused legal research. Red flags point out cases overturned and statutes/ regulations changed.

GimmeTen! feature provides a place where patent professionals can quickly scan the ten latest case reviews. See something interesting? Just follow the link provided and you'll jump to the full case review. You can always go straight to the GimmeTen! feature by entering the following URL in your browser: 10.fedcirc.us

Youth Law Center

The Youth Law Center is a public interest law firm, based in San Francisco, that works to protect children in the nation's foster care and juvenile justice systems from abuse and neglect, and to ensure that they receive the necessary support and services to become healthy and productive adults.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

1-800-FREE411

1-800-FREE411 is free nationwide directory assistance. And it’s free from any phone. Cell. Home. Work. Wherever. Of course, you may get charged minutes on your cell phone (like most calls).

Their sponsors cover the service cost by playing short advertising messages (about 15 seconds) – ads usually based on your search request. A typical call lasts about the same amount of time as a paid 411 call.

Search by Phone: Simply dial 1-800-FREE411 and get the listing you need for free. It’s just like 411, only better because it doesn’t cost anything.

Search by Internet: At Free411.com, you’ll get residential and business listings on the Web. They claim to use the same real-time data as the phone companies.

Ask City

Ask City is a new (about a month old) mapping product on the Internet. Key categories are Businesses and Services, Events, Movies, and Maps & Directions. The three pane interface allows users to conduct multiple searches, revise itineraries, create multi-point driving or walking directions.

Advanced features include multipoint directions and annotation tools that allow you to draw and write on a map before forwarding to friends. Available aerial photos seem more up-to-date than other similar services.

January 22, 2007

FindLaw Daily Opinion Summaries for U.S. Supreme Court - 01/22/07

Jones v. Bock, No. 05–7058, 05–7142 (U.S.S.C. January 22, 2007)
Procedural rules adopted by the Sixth Circuit and other lowers courts, designed to implement the Prison Litigation Reform Act's (PLRA) exhaustion requirement and to facilitate early judicial screening, are not required by the PLRA, and crafting and imposing them exceeded the proper limits on the judicial role.
[To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com.] http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/057058.html

Osborn v. Haley, No. 05–593 (U.S.S.C. January 22, 2007)
In the context of the Westfall Act, which accords federal employees absolute immunity from tort claims arising out of acts undertaken in the course of their official duties, the Attorney General's scope-of-employment certification is conclusive for purposes of removal. Once certification and removal are effected, exclusive competence to adjudicate the case resides in the federal court, and that court may not remand the suit to the state court. Also, Westfall Act certification is proper when a federal officer charged with misconduct asserts, and the Attorney General concludes, that the incident or episode in suit never occurred.
[To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com.] http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/05593.html

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING

Cunningham v. California, No. 05-6551 (U.S.S.C. January 22, 2007)
California's determinate sentencing law, by placing sentence-elevating factfinding within the judge's province, violates a defendant's right to trial by jury safe-guarded by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments.
[To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com.] http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/056551.html

NYS Traffic Data Viewer

The Traffic Data Viewer, or TDV, is a web-based index system that allows users to search for current traffic data available from NYSDOT. Users can obtain individual volume, speed and vehicle classification counts while viewing locations where the data was collected on an interactive map. Other data such as count station coordinates and segment-based annual average daily traffic figures (AADTs) is also available.

Farecast

Farecast.com is the first airfare prediction website. They help online travel shoppers save money by answering the question; should you buy now or wait? In their beta version, they now offer airfare predictions from over 75 U.S. departure cities to top domestic destinations.

iJigg

iJigg is the place for you to find those rare addictive tunes from musicians worldwide. As an iJigg member, you can submit music, rate music and chime in on conversations.

You can also link to specific music or, better still, embed a very nice music player on your site or blog with a musical selection. The possibilities for uploading podcasts (with legal information) and distributing via the iJigg system are intriguing.

A man who grudgingly agreed to his wife's artificial insemination with a donor's sperm may not deny legal responsibility for the child during the couple's divorce proceedings, a Delaware County, N.Y., judge has ruled.

"The bottom line is that Defendant may have been reluctant to have another child, but he vacillated and never clearly and unequivocally said 'no' to his wife," Acting Supreme Court Justice Eugene E. Peckham held in Laura G. v. Peter G., 1070/04.

Home Equity Theft Prevention Act (Eff. 2-01-07)

First American Title Insurance Company of New York (with "thanks" to Mike Berry)
CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS
SPECIAL EDITION

The "Home Equity Theft Prevention Act" (the "Act"), Chapter 308 of the Laws of 2006, signed into law on July 26, 2006 by then Governor Pataki, is effective on February 1, 2007. The Act amends Section 595 of the Banking Law ("Regulation of mortgage brokers, mortgage bankers and exempt organizations"), adds new Section 265-A ("Home Equity Theft Prevention") to the Real Property Law ("RPL"), and adds new Section 1303 ("Foreclosures; required notices") to the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law ("RPAPL").

January 25, 2007

Hot Tip: What Your Clients Should Know About Enforcing Immigration Laws in the Workplace: How to Walk the Line Between Employer Sanctions and Anti-Discrimination Law

At our Annual Meeting Program on January 23, 2007, several speakers presented "hot tips." David Meyers of Albany told us how you should advise your employer clients on the pitfalls of enforcing immigration laws in the workplace, and some have asked for the outline he used at the end of his presentation. This is it:

When I did this “tip” three or four years ago, I told the story of an immigration practitioner who failed to follow the provisions of IRCA (Immigration and Control Act of 1986) with respect to his own employees, that he was subsequently raided by the then-INS, and that he was fined substantially for paperwork violations.

Zimbra

Zimbra is open source server and client software for messaging and collaboration - email, group calendaring, contacts, and web document management and authoring. The Zimbra server is available for Linux, Mac OS X, appliances, and virtualization platforms. The Zimbra Web 2.0 Ajax client runs on Firefox, Safari, and IE, and features easy integration / mash-ups of web portals, business applications, and VoIP using web services.

Google Earth

Seeing 3D terrain and buildings is one of the coolest features of Google Earth. They’ve added higher-quality terrain data for many mountainous regions, as well as support for "textured" 3D buildings–meaning bricks look like real bricks, glass looks like real glass, and overall, the world looks more like the real world. It's just one more step on the path of creating a life-like 3D model of the whole planet.

Jan 29-31, 2007 The Hilton New York Hotel

LegalTech is one of the largest and most important legal technology events of the year.

With conferences and trade shows in both New York and Los Angeles, LegalTech is the #1 Resource for law firms and legal departments to get hands-on practical information for improving their law practice management.

LegalTech provides an in-depth look at what the technological world has in store for you and your practice AND offers an expansive exhibit floor with the most extensive gathering of innovative products designed to meet your current and future technology needs.

January 27, 2007

Tablet Lawyer

TabletLawyer, LLC was founded by James Province, a busy solo practice lawyer in Poulsbo, WA. Last year he had twelve yellow pads of notes being used at the same time in his office. After he discovered a Tablet PC, he increased his organization and productivity through effective use of the Tablet and certain software. He is now passionate about introducing the technology to other lawyers to help improve their practice as well.

Law Comix

Scribble-in-Law is a law cartoon by Charles Pugsley Fincher. New Scribbles are posted on Mondays with unscheduled extras posted as they are done. Each current cartoon is rotated to the archive when a new one is posted.

Don't expect conventional lawyer jokes here, but instead inside legal humor and satire with an offbeat slant. In addition to being a cartoonist, Fincher is a lawyer.

January 29, 2007

Buffalo Innovation

In Family Court and in matrimonial cases, litigants are often referred to a nonprofit organization to complete a judge's order. But while courts often successfully link the litigant and service provider, legal advocates, lawyers and judges are not always aware of all of the programs available in the area.

So Bridget O'Connell, chair of the Bar Association of Erie County's matrimonial and family law committee, and Kristin Arcuri, chair of the bar's practice and procedure in Family Court committee, worked together to create a services fair where those in the legal community could meet providers and learn about their services. The event was held earlier this month at BAEC headquarters.
...

Ending the Gauntlet

Lawyer Lauren Stiller Rikleen discusses her book, Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law, on the latest episode of Westcast, the Thomson West podcast.

In her Westcast interview, Rikleen discusses several of the key themes in her book and the institutional impediments she has identified to women’s success in the practice of law. Rikleen based her book on extensive research and interviews with hundreds of women lawyers and law firm managers across the United States.

Click on the link above to hear the podcast. (Note: You do not need an iPod to listen to a podcast. Your browser should open your system's mp3 player automatically).

January 30, 2007

Citizendium

The Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a "citizens' compendium of everything," is an experimental new wiki project. The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on that model by adding “gentle expert oversight” and requiring contributors to use their real names.

WebCite®

WebCite® is an archiving system for webreferences (cited webpages and websites), which can be used by authors, editors, and publishers of scholarly papers and books, to ensure that cited webmaterial will remain available to readers in the future. If cited webreferences in journal articles, books etc. are not archived, future readers may encounter a "404 File Not Found" error when clicking on a cited URL.

A WebCite® reference is an archived webcitation, and rather than linking to the live website (which can and probably will disappear in the future), authors of scholarly works will link to the archived WebCite® copy on webcitation.org

WebCite® is an entirely free service for authors who want to cite webmaterial, regardless of what publication they are writing for.

January 31, 2007

Suit Allowed Over Firm's Role in Debt Collection

Suit Allowed Over Firm's Role in Debt Collection
Anthony Lin New York Law Journal (entire article)
January 31, 2007 A Brooklyn, N.Y., federal judge has ruled that a suit may proceed against a law firm that allegedly sent out debt collection letters without conducting any meaningful review of the cases referenced in the correspondence.

In July 2000, Upton Cohen & Slamowitz in Woodbury, N.Y., had sent a letter to plaintiff Arthur Miller seeking payment of $1,676 he had charged to a Lord & Taylor credit card. The letter, signed by Mitchell Slamowitz, stated that the firm represented the department store and that the matter had been forwarded to them for collection. The firm proceeded to file a collection action against Miller in August 2000, and he subsequently paid $1,200 to settle the suit.

Miller sued over the letter in February 2001, claiming that it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by being written in a manner designed to confuse the "least sophisticated consumer" and by purporting to be by an attorney who was not meaningfully involved in the matter.

In rejecting Upton Cohen's summary judgment motion last week, Eastern District of New York Judge Raymond Dearie ruled that Upton Cohen had not sufficiently shown it had conducted an adequate review of Miller's file.

"Neither the facts about defendant's familiarity with its client, nor those about the procedure it followed prior to sending the July 18, 2000, debt collection letter to plaintiff, preclude the possibility that a reasonable jury could find that it failed to satisfy [the FDCPA's] requirement for meaningful attorney involvement," Judge Dearie wrote in Miller v. Wolpoff & Abramson, 01 Civ. 1126.